The amazing Australian mallee fowl is a bird that knows how to take temperature!
Is this the world's most amazing bird?
Mallee fowl: This Australian bird actually knows the temperature!
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The mallee fowl is sometimes called the “thermometer
bird,” because its ability to monitor temperature in its
egg-chamber is so accurate. If it is wrong by even one degree,
the chicks wouldn't hatch. We believe that gradual evolution of
this ability would have been impossible. If the first mallee fowl
parents didn't get everything exactly right the first time, there
would be no more mallee fowl. We believe that instinct and
perfect design implanted by God the Creator is the most
reasonable explanation for the existence and survival of the
mallee fowl.
Baby chicks of the Australian mallee fowl hatch only because their parents know how to take temperature. If the mallee chick's parents couldn't tell when the temperature in the egg-chamber was exactly 33 degrees Celsius (91-92 degrees Fahrenheit), their eggs wouldn't hatch. This would mean no more mallee fowl! In fact, if the parents are wrong by more than just one degree either way, it's bye-bye birdie!
Mallee fowl don't sit on their eggs like most birds do to let their body-heat incubate the eggs. They build a large mound and monitor its temperature with their bill and tongue. The first white settlers in Australia to come across these huge mounds in the late 1700s thought they were Aboriginal burial mounds. Only later did they discover the grayish-brown, spotted birds that built them.
The mallee fowl starts building its incredible mound as the breeding season approaches in spring. The parents dig a pit almost a meter (three feet) deep. They scratch up leaves, twigs, bark and other plant material, and scrape them into the pit. When rain soaks the debris the birds build it into a heap, covering the litter with thick sand or soil. When the vegetation rots, the heat increases in the mound, like a compost heap that gardeners use.
Then an amazing thing happens …
Birds take temperature of mound
The birds take the temperature of the mound. The male probes it with his bill, and when both parents are satisfied the temperature in the mound is “hatching heat” (33°C), the hen lays her first egg. She then lays a single egg each week or two, for five or six months. She lays 15-20 eggs over this time. As each egg is laid, the male opens the mound and carefully moves the egg into the right position. He then prepares the mound for the next egg.
Mother mallee hen usually starts laying in late September (southern hemisphere spring). From then until April, father fowl uses his beak and tongue to ensure the temperature of the mound stays at hatching heat.
Father fowl keeps up the heat
In a dazzling display of temperature sensing, the bird constantly alters the structure of the mound to maintain the exact temperature. If the heat in the mound increases because of rapidly decaying plant material, he uncovers the eggs to let air circulate around them. When the hot summer sun beats down, he adds sand or soil to the mound. This acts as a shield to protect the eggs.
In autumn, as the cooler weather causes temperatures to drop, father mallee fowl uncovers the mound early in the day so the heat can reach the eggs. He covers it in the evening to retain the heat. Each egg needs seven weeks' incubation. This means that some eggs will hatch while the mother is laying others.
The newly hatched chick now has up to 15 hours of gruelling work ahead of it. It has to tunnel its way through nearly a meter of soil and debris to reach the open air. Amazingly, the chicks look after themselves from the moment they hatch, and can fly within 24 hours.
Mallee fowl is called the “thermometer bird”
The mallee fowl is sometimes called the “thermometer bird,” because its ability to monitor the mound's temperature is so accurate.
To Bible-believing Christians, the mallee fowl's ability shows remarkable design and planning by God the Creator of all life:
- Both mother and father birds work together to prepare their egg-chamber, yet they also specialize in different tasks.
- The male is able to constantly monitor, and alter if necessary, the precise temperature needed to hatch the eggs laid by the female.
- The newborn chicks have to find their way through a meter of soil unaided, and can fend for themselves from the moment they hatch.
Everything must work perfectly through a long cycle.
Impossible to evolve
Now try to think how the mallee fowl's breeding cycle could have evolved. All you get is unanswered questions:
- How would the male and female determine their duties?
- How could the chicks know they must keep tunneling for up to 15 hours?
- What if the newly hatched chicks gave up after an eight-hour day?
- And how would the male know, from his first try at parenting, that he must maintain the temperature through various seasons and weather conditions at exactly 33°C or he will not produce any chicks?
What could the first mallee fowl evolve from? Would it evolve from a bird that can't take temperature? Not likely, because its whole existence depends on knowing the exact temperature for its eggs. And if it evolved from a bird that already knew how to take temperature, how did the first temperature-taking bird evolve? Evolution has nothing but guesses for this incredible ability.
If the first mallee fowl parents didn't get everything exactly right the first time, there would be no more mallee fowl. We believe that instinct and perfect design implanted by God the Creator is by far the most reasonable explanation for the existence and survival of the mallee fowl.
(Mallee fowl illustration copyright by Steve Cardno. Used with permission.)
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